Tag Archives: year-end

Dear Diary

2009 In Review

Whew, finally.

It’s just like 2009 that I would have a minor argument with my mom last night. And I’m all, Please, give me a break. And then I heard of my teammate’s mom passing away and it’s just…sad. Quit it, 2009.

Maybe it’s silly of me to be blaming it all in the year. A couple of days ago, when I was feeling feverish at work, I kept on muttering, “I hate 2009. I hate 2009.” My teammate asked me why, and I told him a lot of bad things happened in the year, primarily Ondoy. He asked me to name more reasons why 2009 sucked and as I tried to remember my other reasons, I realized that they’re all small things that just happened to converge at the latter part of the year, which made 2009 seem unbearable. I was trying to recall the good things in the year, and even if I still have a hard time remembering anything else that happened before the flood, I know there are a lot of good things in this year despite all the bad things. So now let’s try to remember that.

JANUARY

Big, Fun and Scary Things

2008 Goals – Looking Back

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Okay, so it turns out I have enough time to do one more post, and I guess it’s more appropriate to do this now before the year actually ends and then make a post on the new goals tomorrow.

To be honest, I didn’t feel like doing this because I know most of the goals here are miserable failures. However, I realized that I won’t be able to be at peace with this year and my 2009 goals if I don’t close this one, so, regardless of the results, here’s the assessment of my 2008 goals, posted January 1, 2008.

  • Go to Sydney for World Youth Day 2008. – I don’t want to call this a miserable failure, because even if I didn’t get to go to WYD 2008, I still learned a lot from the experience of preparing for this. I did come thisclose, so that’s good enough I guess. Australia will still be there (although no WYD), and I have more than enough time to prepare for WYD 2011 in Madrid. :D Here’s to hoping my WYD dream comes true.
  • And speaking of traveling…visit at least two other places in the Philippines. – I didn’t get to visit new places, but I did get to go on outings: Subic (Hot Air Balloon Festival), Laiya, Batangas (company outing), Laguna (team pool party) and Cebu.
  • Drive on my own. Naaaah. I drove a bit during January, and all the driving I did after was to bring the car out of the garage. *headdesk*
  • Lose at least 20 lbs and/or 3 inches. Naaaah on this too. I think I managed to stay within what I currently weigh/my current pant size, so that’s something. I will try better next year.
  • Learn how to jumprope. Again, naaaah. I have a jumprope, but after six jumps, I need to stop because I was out of breath! I think the length of my rope is making it hard for me. :| Practice practice!
  • Finish my 2006 NaNoWriMo novel. I made a start on version 2, but I stopped. I have an outline waiting, but the 2008 novel got me more interested. ^^;
  • Establish the PinoyWrimo community and bring attendance to events to at least 20 people. This is probably the goal that really surpassed its expectations. There was 100% increase in attendance in almost all events. The Kick-Off was surprisingly well-attended, as well as one of the write-ins, and we had two TGIO’s which was attended by most of the active people. I love my Wrimos. :)
  • Read at least 50 books in one year, and review at least half of it. I might reach up to 46 this year (see list of books here), but it’s okay. It’s probably the most I read in a year. I finished my review goal though (will post a list soon).
  • Reward myself with new clothes/shoes every month. I think I only managed to do this like…five out of 12 months?
  • Revive Godchicks. Still nothing on the website. Limbo.
  • Start my own blog hosting/hosting business. I started something, but it was more for students who know me. Heh. I still want to host people, but maybe I need a better plan for this. (Oh and if you need hosting, yes, do email me because I am hosting).
  • Bake any one of the following: apple pie, double-layered cake or cheesecake. I have conquered the cheesecake! Next year I’m going to do both the double layer cake and apple pie (not necessarily mixed together ;) ), especially now that we have 9″ spring form pans now. :D Which reminds me, I owe my boys and a girl a cheesecake when we get back to work.
  • Try/learn something new. This is so general! But the main new thing I could think of for 2008 was IBM Club and all the activities, joining the Townhall committee for work, buying my own camera with my own card, watch musicals, traveling with my own money…there’s so many! This is definitely the year of new things. :)
  • Give time for Gawad Kalinga. I…didn’t get to do this either. :( I did get involved in other charities come the end of the year. I want to do more though.
  • Renew my prayer time and grow in my faith. I honestly feel like I didn’t get to do this either. I’m happy I got to confess again, but I know my prayer time is still not as regular as it was before, and I know there’s so much more room to grow. This is why I’m going back to basics in 2009, because I feel like with all my busyness in doing everything that I want to try and trying to be extraordinary, I think I may have lost my way somewhere. So I can’t really measure this one, but I just know there’s still more refining to do.
  • Document everything. Well, I didn’t get to document everything, but I think I managed to take more photos of events this year than last year’s. :) Maybe this year I can start doing a photo essay or something like that.

And so there it is. I don’t know how to assess it, really, since these things are mostly subjective, but I guess this just means 2008 was truly an eventful year. It would’ve been stellar if I managed to do everything, but then…what challenge would that leave for next year?

And yes, I will definitely do this again for 2009. Are you with me? :)

Dear Diary, In His Steps

Last Day of 2008

Even after spending up to midnight yesterday cleaning up this site, setting up Wordplay (for 2009!) and my brother’s website, I woke up almost in time today, off by an hour on my alarm. Heh, snooze buttons are evil, I tell you! But at least I don’t feel like my day is going to be wasted. :) I hope I can keep this up for the next year.

It turns out I won’t be spending New Year at home but at the condo, where we’ll be able to watch fireworks and such at the rooftop. This means I can go to the gym tomorrow morning (yeeees I’m turning over a new leaf — start early!), but it also means the midnight introspection and long prayer/journal times that I do literally at the start of the new year (as in 12 midnight) won’t be done in the privacy of my bedroom. But it’s okay. That only means I have to get creative.

Honestly, I feel kind of bad because I did not get to finish everything I listed here. I might be able to cross out two more from the list there…but the others will just have to be finished by next year, or at least, before I go back to work on Monday. And speaking of which…I still don’t feel like going back to work on Monday. Who’s with me? But, like everyone always say at the end of vacations: time to face reality. Then again, not yet. ;)

I’m rambling, I know. I may not be able to post again until tomorrow, where the year officially ends in 9 (at least in my timezone that is), and a new year and month will be added in my archives down there…so let me share the last reflection from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost For His Highest. I hardly read this one this year, but I always liked the reading for the last year. No matter how blah and apprehensive I feel about the upcoming year because of all its challenges, somehow this brings me comfort because of the truth it carries. So I leave you with this reflection as the last hours of 2008 tick by (did I say that right?).

YESTERDAY
December 31
My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

“You shall not go out with haste…for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.” (Isaiah 52:12)

Security from Yesterday. “…God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.

Security for Tomorrow. “…the Lord will go before you…” This is a gracious revelation — that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.

Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste…” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true tha we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past res, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.

Goodbye soon, 2008. Hello, 2009. I hope I’m ready for you. :)

Dear Diary

2008 Year-End Survey # 2

Again, as with tradition, here’s another year-end survey that I’ve been answering since 2003. Well, at least I think I answered it every year since then. Here’s the survey last year, and here are my answers for this year. :D Oh, and I can’t remember where I got this, so just feel free to grab. Here we go!

PLACES:

1) Place you hung out the most in this year:
Office, brother’s condo, home, Eastwood and Robinson’s Galleria.

2) Favorite new place you discovered:
The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf! Their tea lattes are amazing, and it’s the perfect writer-ly hangout.

3) Places you went on dates:
Erm, if it’s just a normal friendly group date thing, mostly CBTL and Starbucks. As for the serious, romantic date — nah. Still nothing. :P

4) Favorite vacation spot for the year:
Cebu! I would definitely go back, if only for La Merea and Da Vinci’s Pizza.

5) Places you made out in (or more) this year:
Same answer: none.

Continue reading 2008 Year-End Survey # 2 →

Dear Diary

2008 Year-End Meme: First Sentences

Now that Christmas has come and gone, it’s time for all those year-end memes to come out and be posted to help reflect on the past year. :) This particular one was started last year, and it was really fun, so I thought I’d do it again. Here we go!

Instructions:
Take the first sentence (or two) from the first entry of each month and post it here. That’s your year in review.

  • January
    And…here we go. New year, new layout, new philosophy. Yeah. HAPPY 2008, EVERYONE!
  • February
    So today I start mid shift.
  • March
    Yesterday consisted of: Sleeping in late, playing Heroes for a while in the morning, dressing up,  Jomar & Clarisse’s wedding (Congratulations!), seeing old friends who I haven’t seen since the Switchfoot in Manila event, seeing my Sociology professor in the wedding who I haven’t seen in five years and turns out to be Jomar’s friend (Small world!), becoming an impromptu tech person to help out with the video presentation for the pre-reception event, resting all night to recuperate from all of the past weeks’ activities.
  • April
    I have one confession to make: I love summer.
  • May
    It’s way past May 1 already, but…belated Happy Labor Day!
  • June
    A lot has been happening in my life lately, most especially at work.
  • July
    So…it’s been another year. :) Today, I celebrate my first year in my current company.
  • August
    This is a post-dated entry just because I might not be able to post tomorrow. :)
  • September
    I’ll be all cliche and say this: wake me up when September ends? Please?
  • October
    It’s the first two days of October and I’m nursing a runny nose and a just-healed sore throat, but I’m starting to get my bearings again after such a busy month.
  • November
    So it’s finally November, and weirdly enough, when 12 midnight rolls in, I did not feel like writing at all.
  • December
    Today I filed my first sick leave in the span of one and a half years.

It seems a lot stressful than last year’s, don’t you think? Which only means this was a stressful year. Hah. I hope 2009 changes things. :)

Now off to finish the templates I’m working on.

Randomnities

2007 Year-end survey, Part 2

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This is the second year-end survey that I have been doing since 2003, except for 2004, which I probably missed because of me being in Saipan. I’d post the answers in the previous years just for kicks, but some of them are kind of too long. Heh. 2006 answers can be found here. :)

What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?
Get myself a truck bed liner. Haha, no, just kidding. Resign from my old job. Join a sportsfest team (Bowling!). Go boxing. Watch Switchfoot. Go to Singapore and Naga. Become a Municipal Liaison for NaNoWriMo. Buy a MacBook and actually paying for it with my own money. Pay for my website hosting with my own money (after three years!).

Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Agh. Maybe only 2? I did not make proper resolutions this year for some reason. I can’t even remember them now. As for next year…I will probably make some, but they’ll most probably be similar with the previous ones.

Did anyone close to you give birth?
My cousin’s wife gave birth, as well as my nephew’s wife. Haven’t seen the babies though. I saw my nephew’s baby (my…grand-niece? :-o) yesterday.

Did anyone close to you die?
Like I mentioned in the first survey, Erwin passed away last year but I only found out about him early this year. :(

What countries did you visit?
Singapore!

What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Better prayer life (once again), more confidence in my driving, possibly even higher salary (heh), and more willpower to actually lose weight. Heh. Better time management skills and more assertiveness. Oh, and a 250GB external hard disk drive for Aslan.

Continue reading 2007 Year-end survey, Part 2 →

Randomnities

2007 Year-end survey, Part 1

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For the first time since I started my not-so-new job, I’ve never been so happy it’s the weekend. This week has been the same fun, but there’s been so much work and I’ve got too little sleep much thanks to the Misa de Gallo/Simbang Gabi, so everything feels like I have too little time to work on it. So let me breathe a sigh of relief that the weekend is here, and I’ve got a four-day weekend to look forward to. Then another four day weekend next week, but let’s not go to that yet. :)

I’m supposed to make a list of things that happened in 2007 that is worth mentioning but I’m too tired to think. I found this old survey from my LiveJournal though. As with everyone else in the blog world doing their 2007 recollections, here’s my second one (the first one being this). The last time I filled this survey out was back in 2003. To make things more interesting, I’ll keep my 2003 answers (in italics) in the survey so we could all laugh at how I see things 4 years ago. :P (Oh and some names are censored to protect their privacy…and prevent me from being embarrassed :)) )

Continue reading 2007 Year-end survey, Part 1 →

Randomnities

First Sentences for 2007

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This post’s content is taken from Kyameel‘s blog, the first of my 2007 year-end memes ((Ergh, I still hate using this word)) on the first early morning of Simbang Gabi, because I can’t go back to sleep (and I bet I’ll only be able to sleep around noon. Even an adjustable beds won’t help me this morning). This is the price of my body clock continuously getting whacked. Hah.

Anyway.

Take the first sentence (or two) from the first entry of each month and post it here. That’s your year in review.

  • January
    “Where was I for the past first five days of 2007? Let me list them down: January 1: I spent the first two hours in prayer. *blissful smile*” ((Sigh))
  • February
    “Wow, it’s already February. Where did January go?”
  • March
    “Well hello, it’s March already. Can you believe it?”
  • April
    “Okay, I think it’s pretty presentable now. :) This is the less pink layout I wanted, and if you didn’t see this post before I edited it, I realized that I used Christmas colors here, but according to the Color Schemer website where I picked this scheme, it’s supposed to be apples.”
  • May
    “Happy Labor Day everyone. It is so good to be able to take a break in the middle of the week — with pay!”
  • June
    “Hello, Friday! Hello, June! I never mentioned it, but I started a Script Frenzy blog.”
  • July
    “Last Friday was my last day at work. I was permitted to be a bit relaxed, provided I finish all the documents for turnover and request for transfer early. Around 3:00pm I was done, so all I did was talk with my officemates and do some picture taking.”
  • August
    “If you still don’t have a mosh pit ticket, then this should convince you! :) For all mosh pit ticket buyers until August 6, you will get the following: Free limited edition poster autographed by the entire band for every mosh pit ticket purchased, and Free Sunchild Redeemer T-Shirt for every two tickets purchased (Sunchild Redeemer shirts were sold during the Reuben Morgan worship two years ago).”
  • September
    “Let’s have some mindless fun again before I talk about my long, long book fair day. :) This quick survey is taken from the That’s My Answer meme for September 1. :)”
  • October
    “Hello, it’s October! I’m still sort of swamped at work, but I thank my teammates for taking some of the load (Hi Mike!) off me.”
  • November
    “Hello November. :)It’s a non-working holiday today and today is also the day we fly to Singapore.”
  • December
    “Yes, this is another NaNoWriMo post. :) Which I am supposed to post here (well, it is cross-posted, soooo) but this blog seemed to be abandoned now, and Mike has been demanding I make a new post…so here. ^^;”

I just have to laugh at how I always marveled at a new month’s entry. Did all months of 2007 pass by that fast?

Okay, now I’m sleepy. :) I shall take a nap before reformatting Ginger and putting her up for sale. :) Good morning everyone!